American audiences don’t often hear the music of British composer William Walton (1902-’83). I doubt any musician in the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra had ever played Walton’s Symphony No. 1 before last weekend. It’s music worth hearing, and I found the Saturday evening performance more than interesting.
Completed in 1935, this large-scale symphony shows two moods. The first three movement have an anxious and brooding nature, but this is British brooding, restrained even in its most emotional moments. The music apparently characterizes a romance that ended badly for the composer. The Sun comes out in the final movement, which rather sounds like Walton’s score for the 1944 Laurence Olivier film Henry V.
Guest conductor Alexander Shelley, himself British, impressively led the symphony from memory. Shelley is music director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Canada. He is an assured and classy presence on the podium, with no urge to dominate the orchestra with exaggerated gestures, which is too common in guest conductors. Horns, trumpets, trombones and tuba had plenty of opportunity to shine with beautiful ensemble playing, featuring a lovely solo from Matthew Ernst, principal trumpeter. Other notable solos came from Sonora Slocum on flute and Rudi Heinrich on bassoon. I was repeatedly aware of the expert playing of timpanist Dean Borghesani.
The first half of the program was a tribute to Britain by two German composers. Felix Mendelssohn’s The Hebrides overture (Fingal’s Cave) was sketched after, at age 20, he visited the islands off the west coast of Scotland—specifically, Fingal’s Cave on the island of Staffa. It is a mild-mannered yet colorful account of the Scottish wilderness, well played by the MSO and Shelley.
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Max Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy uses melodies from Scotland as its basis in four movements. Essentially a violin concerto, it featured guest soloist Blake Pouliot, a young Canadian. Pouliot’s violin cast a sweet, lean, silky sound. He seemed effortless in his graceful playing, even in the virtuoso sections of the jolly final movement. Pouliot’s extroverted personality came forth in that movement, showing the pure joy of music making. I couldn’t help but smile in pleasure listening to him.
